Alan Watts Org

Released today - the full remastered Alan Watts talk Being in the Way 2 is now on YouTube! Filmed beside a waterfall in Thailand, this latest entry in our All Natural series pairs Watts’ reflections on Taoism, energy, and interconnectedness with real landscapes and untouched environments, our real response to the growing wave of AI-generated imitations online. “We think of the universe as a system of energy… everything is a pattern of energy… Energy and pattern are the same thing.” — Alan Watts Transcript: “We think of the universe as a system of energy, and the energy flows in such a way as in a rock to act hard, and in water to act liquid, and in air to act pretty soft and gassy. So all the way around, everything is a pattern of energy. And I don’t want you to think of the words “pattern of energy” as if the pattern were one thing and the energy another, as if a pattern were a thing made of something called energy. Energy and pattern are the same thing, because you will never find energy not in a pattern, or a pattern that is not energy. And if these things are inextricably associated, you can be sure there’s some sort of conspiracy underneath the whole thing, and that they’re really one.”

What if meaning isn’t something to solve…but something to step into? Not a concept…an experience. You are it. Full talk, Intellectual Yoga, is available with all natural visuals on our AlanWattsOrg official youtube channel. This and the rest of the remastered audio collections available as ‘The Works’ at AlanWatts.com Transcript “But the point is you are. Now, what are we saying when we say that? We’re obviously saying something very important. Alas and alack, there is no way of defining it, that is to say, going any further into words about it. See, when a philosopher hears such a statement as “tat vam asi,” “you are it,” or there is only the eternal now, the philosopher says, “yes, I don’t see why I was so excited about it. What do you mean by that?” And that he asked that question because he wants to continue in a word game. He doesn’t want to go on into an experiential dimension. He wants to go on arguing because that’s his trip. And all these great mystical statements mean nothing whatsoever. They’re ultimate statements, just as, you know, the trees and the clouds and the mountains and the stars have no meaning because they’re not words. Words have meaning because they’re symbols, because they point to something other than themselves. But the stars, like music - music, only bad music has any meaning. Classical music never has a meaning, and to understand it, you must simply listen to it and observe its beautiful patterns, go into its complexity. So… you get… when your mind, that is to say, your verbal systems, get to the end of their tether, that is to say, when they arrive at the meaningless statement, here is the critical point. And the method of Jñāna Yoga is to exercise one’s intellect to its limits so that you get to the point where you have no further questions to ask.” #realalanwatts #alanwatts #alanwattswisdom #consciousness #spiritualawakening

In this episode, Mark Watts introduces @AlanWattsorg in ‘Learning the Human Game’ – originally recorded at a seminar at the University of Michigan. In this lecture, Alan explores the connection between language and ethics, helping us understand why the perfect balance between randomness and order is the optimal middle-ground for experiencing life. Listen to 🎧 Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 17 – Learning the Human Game 🎧 on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app. #alanwatts #beherenow #podcast #connection #experience

Intellectual Yoga by Alan Watts is a talk on why true understanding comes not from describing reality, but from learning how to see it directly through silence and direct awareness. Enjoy the full lecture with all natural video on our Alan Watts Org official YouTube channel, and explore the remastered audio collections Tao of Philosophy, Essential Lectures, and The Works at alanwatts.com. Transcript “And so if you follow certain instructions, then you will understand certain things that cannot be described. And that, of course, that is what yoga is all about. All mystical writing really is instructions. It is not an attempt to describe the universe, to describe God, to describe ultimate reality. Every mystic knows that cannot possibly be done. The very word ‘mysticism’ is from the Greek root ‘Muein,’ which means ‘silence.’ Mum’s the word. Shut up. I should talk, hahahahaha. But that’s it. Be quiet. See? Then you’ll understand, because the instructions are: listen, listen, see, or even look. Stop, look, and listen. That’s yoga. And see what’s going on. Only don’t say, don’t say—that’ll spoil it. It’s like somebody came to a Zen master and said, ‘The mountains and hills and the sky—are not all these the body of Buddha?’ The master said, ‘Yes, but it’s a pity to say so.” #alanwatts #realalanwatts #alanwattswisdom #zen #mysticism

Stop talking to yourself and see what remains. Alan Watts’ expression of Mantra Yoga & jñāna: the state of direct awareness beyond words, where reality is experienced instead of described. Full talk available now with visual on our youtube channel - also as remastered audio in the full audio collection ‘The Works’ at AlanWatts.com Transcript : “Mantra Yoga, which is the practice through chanting of humming, either out loud or silently, certain sounds which become supports for contemplation for what is in Sanskrit called “jñāna,” and jñāna is the state in which one is clearly awake and aware of the world as it is, as distinct from the world as it is described. In other words, in the state of jñāna you stop thinking. That is to say, you stop talking to yourself and figuring to yourself and symbolizing to yourself what is going on. You simply are aware of what is, and nobody can say what it is because, as (Alfred) Korzybski well said, “the real world is unspeakable.” Theres a lovely double take in that, but that’s jñāna.” #alanwatts #mantrayoga #awarenessmatters

In this clip from A Sense of Smell, Alan Watts describes the Japanese tea ceremony as simply drinking tea in a completely, fully attentive way, where every movement is given total attention and each action is done as if it were the only important thing in the universe. It is a relaxed, easy way of being, living entirely in the present moment… the Eternal Now. This excerpt is part of The Essentials – Remastered Video Series, a full-length collection spanning 5 hours and 30 minutes across a wide range of core themes from Alan Watts’ work. Available for purchase at alanwatts.com/video. Transcript “There is a special incense which the Japanese use in tea ceremony. Tea ceremony is a peculiar thing. It’s a ceremony that is, as it were, non-religious and yet very religious. All we’re doing in tea ceremony is just drinking tea, and there are no images, icons, or religious symbols present. There is just drinking of tea in a completely, fully attentive way, in which everything that you do is done as if it were the only important thing in the universe. You see, tea ceremony is completely living in the present, being absolutely with what you’re doing, but in a kind of relaxed, easy way... living in the Eternal Now, which is actually the only place there is to live.” #alanwatts #mindfulness #teaceremonyritual

Three paths. One realization. Alan Watts explores the deeper meaning of Hatha, Bhakti, and Karma Yoga, revealing three distinct paths that all lead back to the same question: who are you, really? Watch this excerpt from Intellectual Yoga - streaming now as part of the All Natural full-length YouTube series. Also available in the Alan Watts App and the full collections at alanwatts.com. Transcript” There are basically certain principal forms of yoga. Most people are familiar with Hatha yoga, which is a psychophysical exercise system, and that’s the one you see demonstrated most on television, because it has visual value. You can see all these exercises of lotus positions and people curling their legs around their necks and doing all sorts of marvelous exercises, and they’re good exercises. The most honest yoga teacher I know is a woman who teaches Hatha yoga and doesn’t pretend to be any other kind of guru, and she does it very well. Then there is Bhakti Yoga. “Bhakti” means “devotion,” and I suppose in general you might say that Christianity is a form of Bhakti Yoga, because it is yoga practiced through extreme reverence for and love for some being felt, more or less, external to oneself, who is the representative of the divine. Then there is Karma Yoga. “Karma” means “action,” and incidentally, that’s all it means. It does not mean the law of cause and effect. When we say that “something that happens to you is your karma,” all it’s saying is it’s your own doing. Nobody’s in charge of karma except you. Karma Yoga is the way of action, of using one’s everyday life, one’s trade, or an athletic discipline like sailing or surf riding or track running as your way of yoga, as your way of discovering who you are.”

🎧 NEW @alanwattsorg Podcast This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts outlines: * Two distinct schools of thought: those who focus on structure, and those who focus on what Watts calls ‘goo’ * How fixating on practicality is like knowing all the words to a song without ever truly hearing the music * The difference between a scientific perspective and a spiritual perspective & so much more! Listen to 🎧 Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 38 – What Is It? 🎧 on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app. #alanwatts #betterhelp #explore #spiritual #podcast

In this Alan Watts segment from Intellectual Yoga, he explores what happens when inner chatter stops: the past and future fall away, the division between thinker and thought disappears, and all that remains is the eternal here and now. A powerful reminder to step outside the mind’s constant noise, if only once a day. 🎧Listen to Intellectual Yoga in full on Alan Watts Org YouTube, and explore the complete audio collection at alanwatts.com Transcript: “Because when you stop talking to yourself and you are simply aware of what is, that is to say of what you feel, what you sense, even that saying too much, you suddenly find that the past and the future have completely disappeared. So also have disappeared the so called differentiation between the knower and the known, the subject and the object, the feeler and the feeling, the thinker and the thought. They just aren’t there because you have to talk to yourself to maintain those things. They are purely conceptual. They’re ideas, they’re phantoms, ghosts. So when you allow thinking to stop, all that goes away. And you find you’re in an eternal here and now, and there’s no way you’re supposed to be, there’s nothing you’re supposed to do, there’s no way you’re supposed to go. Because in order to think you’re supposed to do something, you have to think. And so it’s incredibly important to unthink at least once a day.” #alanwatts #alanwattswisdom #alanwattsquotes #listen #consciousness

What we call “solid” reality is actually a rhythm. A pulse. 🌊Something appearing and disappearing so quickly we mistake it for continuous. 💡In this moment, Alan Watts points to a simple but profound realization… that even light itself flickers on and off, and our perception smooths it into something stable. This is a glimpse into nothingness not as absence, but as the space that makes everything possible. 🎙️Full talk: Nothingness from the Essential Video Series Get complete Alan Watts collections at alanwatts.com 📄Transcript: “Now we all know that energy is always vibration, pulsation, whether it be the energy of light or the energy of sound. It’s always on and off. And in the case of light, say you get very fast light, very strong light, even say with alternating current, you don’t notice the discontinuity because your retina retains the impression of the on pulse. And so that carries over during the off pulse, and you don’t notice the off pulse, except in a slow light like an arc lamp.”

Alan Watts — Intellectual Yoga. The sense that life is “all right” only exists because, somewhere deep down, we know it might not be. That quiet contrast is what gives the present its depth… its aliveness. Enjoy the full talk now on YouTube as part of our All Natural series - this is also available in the complete Alan Watts collection at AlanWatts.com Transcript: “You are only aware that things are all right for the moment. I mean, I hope most of the people in this gathering have a sort of genial sense inside them that for the time being, things are going on more or less okay. Some of you may be very miserable, and then your problem may be just a little different, but it’s essentially the same one. But you must realize that that sense of life being fairly all right is inconceivable and unfeelable unless there is, way, way, way in the back of your mind, the glimmer of a possibility that something absolutely unspeakably awful might happen. It doesn’t have to happen. Of course you’ll die one day. But there always has to be the vague apprehension, the “hintergedanken,” that the awful awfuls are possible. It gives spice to life.”

Alan Watts – Intellectual Yoga | On the Limits of Thought (Full talk now on our YouTube) What if thinking - taken all the way to its limit - leads you beyond itself? In this talk, Alan Watts explores the intellectual approach to yoga: not as physical practice, but as a path where the mind exhausts its own questions and opens into direct experience. “You stop talking to yourself… and are simply aware of what is.” Through philosophy, paradox, and insight, Watts reveals that the deepest realization isn’t something to attain, but something already true. “There is nothing to pursue… because you’re it.” Presented in the All Natural Alan Watts series - real voice, real presence, paired with nature’s beauty. A talk from the Tao of Philosophy series, a part of the Essential Lecture collection (Remastered) 🎧 Explore the full audio & video collections: #alanwatts #alanwattsphilosophy #alanwattswisdom #yoga #awareness